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In 2008, the Pacific Northwest state became just the second in the union to offer online registration. This week, a new Facebook app created by Microsoft (a Washington company, naturally) will provide a new interface to let voters access the MyVote system.

"Facebook has millions of users, and a lot of users in Washington state—half of all Facebook members log on every day," said Shane Hamlin, the state’s co-director of elections, in a phone call with Ars on Tuesday afternoon.

He explained that Washington hopes to make it as easy as possible for voters to register. Between March 2010 and March 2011, 60 percent of Washington voters who registered online were 18-34 years old. Since 2008, more than 475,000 new registrations or updated information have been processed.

"Your information is coming to us from Facebook but you can do that without leaving Facebook," he added.

"Your name and date of birth are pulled from Facebook profile, then it operates exactly as it does if you’re not in Facebook. Our state database checks to see if you’re already registered. If you are, it will take you to MyVote service, [where] you can update registration information. You also need a Washington state ID or driver’s license. We do another real-time check to match that this is a real person who is registering."

Hamlin added that not only is online registration more efficient for voters, but it’s cheaper, too.

"It saves the county $0.50 to $2 per registration and saves the state $0.25 per registration, as of 2009," he noted. "If this works as we expect, Facebook and Microsoft will be more than happy to work with any other state that has online registration."

UPDATE: Shane Hamlin e-mailed Ars on Tuesday evening to say, "I recall saying that the soonest the app will be available is next week, but that it could be released later."

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Cyrus Farivar
Cyrus is a Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is out now from Melville House. He is based in Oakland, California. Emailcyrus.farivar@arstechnica.com//Twitter@cfarivar

Care to elaborate? I don't see what the big deal is. It's not so much as a dedicated Facebook thing as it is getting your basic details from it and just carrying on with the online registration as it would be if you visited their website to register.Honestly I think this is a great idea. It will likely get more people politically active, turn up voter percentages and all in all make government more democratic. I would be hesitant if it were actually voting through Facebook, but it's not, just essentially putting a frame around the state's voter registration page.

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

I don't understand why we can't vote online anyway. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls.

Well, aside from the fact that our system is incompetent to even make a digital voting machine that is secure for use at a polling location, I think there is an argument for requiring people to make some kind of minimal effort to show they actually care.

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

We can't even stop dead people from voting in physical polling places. How are we going to stop abuse when it's open to the web?

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

We can't even stop dead people from voting in physical polling places. How are we going to stop abuse when it's open to the web?

Actually READ.It's not just wide open to the web.WA already has an online service (MyVote).This is just using FB information so the user doesn't need to enter that same data again into the existing online service.

Only problem I see is less (politically) educated people voting. But that doesn't seem to be a problem since people are ok that we still use a system that doesn't let the popular vote winner be declared the winner. But... Whatever. MN took my voter registration away because I don't physically live there anymore. But still pay them taxes. Imagine that.

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

Care to elaborate? I don't see what the big deal is. It's not so much as a dedicated Facebook thing as it is getting your basic details from it and just carrying on with the online registration as it would be if you visited their website to register.Honestly I think this is a great idea. It will likely get more people politically active, turn up voter percentages and all in all make government more democratic. I would be hesitant if it were actually voting through Facebook, but it's not, just essentially putting a frame around the state's voter registration page.

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

We can't even stop dead people from voting in physical polling places. How are we going to stop abuse when it's open to the web?

If anything voting online, or at least the registration, would stop voter fraud. It's not that hard, enter you SSN. If the SSA verifies that SSN belongs to a dead person you can't vote. The VA ( through the DoD, who verifies SSNs through SSA ) does it with their new website, so don't tell me federal agencies can't get along.

Your name and date of birth are pulled from Facebook profile, then it operates exactly as it does if you’re not in Facebook.

Sure, let's open up a big security and privacy vulnerability just to save people from having to enter two pieces of information manually. Great fucking idea.

I will never, ever trust anything to do with electronic voting --even if it's just registration-- unless the entire process from the moment electricity is applied is completely open to public scrutiny (short of the actual vote itself). This of course will never happen. But I never thought the process would be further undone because of unmitigated voter laziness.

If you can't enter your goddam name and birth date onto a registration form without the assistance of Facebook, of all things, you simply do not deserve to vote. There, I've said it.

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

Because it's probably a bad idea to make it possible for the Chinese government or Russian script kiddies to choose our next president.

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

Do you really want to wake up some Wednesday in November and find out that Anonymous was elected president as a write-in candidate?

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

Read the bolded secttion, then review my reply. There is a subtle difference between the info in the article and the comment I was replying to, but if you're a responsible voter, then you already read the supporting material before making your decision

It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

You don't have to go to the polls in WA. Voting is done by mail.

You almost can *not* go to the polls to vote in WA. A couple of years back, the lines in Bellevue were backed outside of downtown polling center because they had about 10 voting machines available. Some of us were in line for 5+ hours. I was a bit surprised to get a call back from the state elections office after the voicemail I left bitching about it and was told it was intended solely for people who were disabled or otherwise unable to vote by mail.

Being told I'm a "last minute voter" by voting on Election Day and that I was "supposed" to mail in a ballot feels vaguely like disenfranchisement. I was homeless long enough to know that regular mail service is a luxury.

Now, mail-in ballots in WA are the standard and voting at a polling location is very *VERY* much the exception.

How long before I have to have a Facebook account to vote, or I won't be counted?

It is my *strongly* held opinion this is a BAD thing. (on a moral good/bad scale.)

FaceBook is in the news once per month about security breaches and exploits and vulnerabilities and some moron in the Washington St. Gov't thought this was a good idea ?

I really really really hope that some major breach occurs right after Wash St. posts notice about how they got 1 million voters registered thru F/B and all of that personal data get sprawled across the Internet.

[the fact that it's prob already available online notwithstanding]

Bad Idea Washington.

Major General Thanatos wrote:

Meanwhile in Washington I can register the entire arstechnica member roster to vote with a perl script.

Meanwhile in Washington I can register the entire arstechnica member roster to vote with a perl script.

I assume you're joking, but that doesn't appear to be the case:

Quote:

"Your name and date of birth are pulled from Facebook profile, then it operates exactly as it does if you’re not in Facebook. Our state database checks to see if you’re already registered. If you are, it will take you to MyVote service, [where] you can update registration information. You also need a Washington state ID or driver’s license. We do another real-time check to match that this is a real person who is registering."

Presumably there are some additional checks to this, but again, is the supposed benefit worth the added risk? They claim it will save money, but that claim evaporates if there is a security breach and they have to clean up afterwards.

But no one wants to talk about security breaches when the glitter of new technology catches their eye.

Not about the article per-say but I don't understand why we can't vote online. It makes no sense that in this day and age we should have to physically go to polls and it would make things much easier for the elderly & disabled.

Awesome. I just tried the WA state myvote site. With a first name, last name, and date of birth, I can pull any name in WA state and get their real address, not just their mailing address!

I did this in 1965, but back then we had the nutz to crack it without the date of birth. We called them Phone Books, and they even had these little huts every couple of blocks with one in them. Ahhh hacking was great back then ...

That's like a Facebook cellphone, right? There's a rumor that they might be coming out with a new phone that does Facebook and even tells you when your friends are in the same car without you having to look up from the screen!